Many organizations, particularly larger organizations such as businesses and the like, group their personnel into multiple groups or departments (sometimes also called functions, business units [BU] or strategic business units [SBU] and the like), which generally focus on particular tasks being performed by the organization. For example, an organization which is in the business of producing and selling various types of products may have separate departments for finance, marketing, R&D (research and development), IT (information technology), PR (public relations), etc. The specific types of departments or groups and the duties associated therewith vary substantially between different types of organizations. Further, the particular size of each department or group or, in other words, the number of personnel assigned to such group can vary depending upon the specific work requirements therefor. In planning a building space to house the organization and its personnel, the building spaces are outfitted with various arrangements of work spaces, furniture, office equipment and the like, wherein the specific space requirements for each of the groups or departments may vary depending upon the physical requirements for such personnel.
When planning the building layout so as to accommodate the personnel of a particular organization, building planners, such as architects and designers (A&D), often are retained by an organization to plan the building layouts and best organize the physical locations of the various departments and groups. As used herein, the term “group” can refer to a formal “department” having an organizational hierarchy, or may refer to a more informal sub-grouping of personnel having a particular assignment of tasks. These groups or departments are sometimes called functions, business units (BU) or strategic business units (SBU), etc. depending on a particular organization. Hence, when planning the physical layout of the organization within a particular building or buildings or space, the building planners, most typically an A&D firm, develops a location plan for placement of the groups within the available physical spaces located in the building floor plan or plans. Due to various building limitations, such as limitations on the floor area, it may be necessary to fit multiple departments or groups within a single physical space, or if the physical space cannot adequately handle all of these groups or even a single large group of personnel, it may be necessary to split or subdivide a particular organizational group into subgroups which are physically separated from each other such as in different buildings in a building complex, or more preferably, on adjoining floors of a single building.
While the organization may be subdivided into multiple departments and groups, these groups may interact frequently with other related groups performing business tasks which are closely related or associated with the tasks being performed by a particular group. Thus, during normal business work days, a particular group or department may have frequent interaction and communications with one or more other groups of the organization, and may have only minimal or little contact with still other organizational groups. Where a particular group has frequent interaction with another group or department, especially when face to face interaction is desired, it may be desirable when planning the layout of a building space to place these related groups closer together in physical location if not in close proximity or directly adjacent to each other so as to more efficiently permit meetings and communications between the groups.
For building planners, such planners typically attempt to identify the various departments and groups and the number of people therein as well as their space requirements. These space requirements usually are defined in the unit of space per person, such as square foot per person or square meter per person [usually called density]. As such, multiplying density by headcount [number of people in each department] results in total needed area for a particular department. Such planners also attempt to determine the amount or level of interaction between related groups. Thereafter, the building planner attempts to take this information into account when assigning physical locations for the different groups within a building floor plan or multi-story/multi-building floor plans.
In the traditional planning process, the building planner, such as an A&D firm, works directly with a client organization to develop an understanding of the departments and groups and their requirements, and then assigns physical locations for such groups within the available floor plan or plans. The traditional process requires numerous meetings between the building planner and the client organization to determine the needs of the client organization and then prepare multiple iterations of floor plans to develop a final floor plan that is most acceptable to the client organization. This typically is an iterative process possibly requiring dozens of meetings, proposals and presentations between the personnel of the building planner and the client organization. For example, the building planner first can conduct interviews with a client organization to identify the departments/groups and determine the needs thereof, wherein these needs possibly can evolve or change over the course of the planning process. The building planner also has the building plans of one or more buildings which are being developed or outfitted for use by the client organization. These building plans typically may be designed in a CAD system wherein the building planner can take the building plans and prepare an initial proposal for the building layout and the location assignments for the departments/groups. These reports may be generated in other available software such as Powerpoint or Illustrator, wherein a presentation is then made to the client organization. In preparing the floor plans and building layouts, the building planner may present the departments and groups as space-covering blocks which cover a portion or all of a particular floor plan, and may provide a multi-layer stacking of the floor plans if the building has multiple spaces which define the layers or stacks of the building. Plans are then generated that generally show which departments are located on a particular floor or in a particular space. Once this information is presented to the client organization, client feedback is obtained and further revisions may then be required to the proposed floor plan through multiple iterations to finally develop a final floor plan that is acceptable to both the client organization and the building planner. In attempting to block and locate the particular departments and groups in a floor plan, the building planner attempts to physically locate the inter-related departments and groups close together either on the same floor or physically adjacent or in close proximity to each other so as to provide the most efficient workflow and interaction between the departments and groups. However, this process typically involves multiple iterations of presentations and comments, which is time-consuming and requires multiple meetings. In such traditional planning process, human errors are not uncommon, either: since different tools are used for developing a proposal, presenting to a client, and then discussing changes with the client. During the process, departments or groups can be left out, can be redundant, or can lose their critical connections with other departments or groups, all unnoticed. This, in turn can create potential problems when designing the building: not enough space to fit all departments with desired density; more space is designed than desired; departments that should be in close proximity get placed far from each other on different floors or even different buildings.
It is an object of the invention to provide an improved planning process which reduces the iterations and time required to develop a suitable building plan, as well as to reduce or eliminate the human error of leaving out departments, mismatching departmental criteria (such as headcount, density or area), and creating redundancies.
The invention relates to an architectural planning system, software and the processes therefor, which uses a video screen to display organizational data representing the different groups, a blocking diagram representing the building floor plans, and a stacking diagram representing the individual floors of a building, as well as an overview of organizational information on each department or group which can be referenced as work group characteristics—or also can be called dashboard, such as size, critical connections, adjacency ratio or resources needed. The architectural planning system allows for dynamic transfer and placement of the organizational data onto the floor plans and into the stacking diagram to quickly allow for dynamic and collaborative development of blocking and stocking diagrams, preferably in a single display. This architectural planning software can be loaded on a portable computer-based system or accessed from a web or server-based location through on-site computers, such as at the client organization's site. This system allows for a direct meeting of members of the client organization and the building planner to review the organizational data, blocking diagrams and stacking diagrams, and further allows for quick and dynamic modifications to the blocking and stacking diagrams, for example in response to face-to-face feedback from the client organization. This allows for a dynamic and interactive meeting between representatives of the building planner and the client organization to not only review a proposed plan, but also make immediate modifications thereto, present ideas, make instant changes, simulate ideas and finalize the needs of the client organization. As such, the client is actively involved in the planning process which allows for co-creation of a proposed building plan on site based on current up-to-date information received from the client organization. The software and process of the invention actively tracks the relationship of the organizational groups as well as the required operational connections needed therebetween and even tracks the desired connections which are not required but still are preferred. This connection information can be actively taken into account during the planning phase. Generally, the invention provides an improved software tool and process for planning the physical locations of organizational groups within the building space, reducing or eliminating human errors and greatly minimizes the service hours required of personnel from the building planner and client organization in developing a final proposal. Further, changes in organizational needs can be readily modified in the plans and handled quickly through direct and dynamic collaboration between these parties.
Other objects and purposes of the invention, and variations thereof, will be apparent upon reading the following specification and inspecting the accompanying drawings.
Certain terminology will be used in the following description for convenience and reference only, and will not be limiting. For example, the words “upwardly”, “downwardly”, “rightwardly” and “leftwardly” will refer to directions in the drawings to which reference is made. The words “inwardly” and “outwardly” will refer to directions toward and away from, respectively, the geometric center of the arrangement and designated parts thereof. Said terminology will include the words specifically mentioned, derivatives thereof, and words of similar import.